Ghosts
by Victoria18Carlton
Summary: Sequel to 'To the Ends of the Universe'. Allie Swallow and Pavel Chekov have left the incident with Khan behind them, their relationship is strong and their careers are flourishing. But Ghosts from their pasts lurk around every corner. (Chekov/OC)
1. An Appearance

The crew of the _Enterprise_ were enjoying some well earned shore leave. What made this particular shore leave even more welcome was that it was on Earth. Having now been in space for over a year the majority of the crew, the human segment at least, were missing their families and friends. It wasn't that they didn't enjoy their five year mission, it was going spectacularly well so far. Aside from their altercation with Khan over six months ago there had been very few dangerous incidents, just discoveries and explorations. But a year is a long time to be away from family, and so lots of crewmembers were taking the time to visit their loved ones on Earth. Of course there was a hefty portion of the crew who didn't have relatives on Earth, whether they were on a different planet or not. Therefore much of the crew were spending their shore leave reading, playing sports, or just doing nothing at all.

Two such people were Lieutenants Allie Swallow and Pavel Chekov. They had so far spent pretty much all of their time together doing, well, nothing. Currently they were lounging under a tree in the grounds outside of Starfleet Headquarters. Pavel was leaning against the tree with Allie's head in his lap. The sun beamed down on them, and they had been chatting about this and that for a while, but they had fallen silent, enjoying the heat and the company. After a while Allie broke the silence with a simple, "This is really nice."  
Pavel looked down at her, "Vat is?"  
"This," she replied, "Just sitting here. I can't really remember the last time I got to spend all day just lying in the sun without having to worry about anything. After everything that happened with Khan it's really nice to just relax and do absolutely nothing at all."  
"And your really alright vith vat Khan did to you?"  
"Pavel, you ask me this on a weekly basis. It took a bit of getting used to, but yeah, I'm okay with it. I am now anyway." They sat quietly again for a minute when, "Hang on a minute," She opened her eyes, "Are you plaiting my hair?"  
He dropped the strands of hair he was holding. "Um… yes," he admitted, a little bit embarrassed. "I suppose I vas."

She smiled, "It's okay, you can if you want to."  
"No, I didn't ewen realise I vas, it's a bit veird."  
"No it isn't – I think it's cute."  
He scowled. "Zat is a wery good reason not to do it. I vish people wouldn't keep saying zat I'm cute just because I'm younger zan zem."  
"You're older than me and I say it, you've never said anything before."  
"You're allowed." His scowl faded a little. "It's just, it gets a little tiring."  
"Pavel, no-one knows more that I do that you are perfectly capable of throwing a very powerful punch." She paused, and thought about what she'd said. Then she sat up and turned to look at him, a horrified expression on her face. "Oh my God I've just realised how that awful that sounds! I don't mean it like that!"  
He laughed and pulled her in for a hug, also managing to stop her from talking. "How many time do I need to remind you to zink before you speak?!"  
"Whatever," she said, rather muffled against his chest. She tried (not very hard) to break away from him, but he held on to her. "Let me go," she said playfully.  
"You can easily get avay, you're about ten times stronger zan me," he teased.  
"Yes, but this is more fun!"

After they had wrestled for a few minutes she finally did pull away, and she turned around to see if anyone had been watching them, she wasn't a big fan of public displays of affection and she didn't want anyone calling her a hypocrite. As she quickly and subtly surveyed those around her, three well dressed people across the grounds caught her eye. They were walking to the main Starfleet building, across from her and Pavel. They seemed very out of place among the uniformed officers and cadets – even she and Pavel were still in uniform, despite being on shore leave. She concentrated a little more; she was sure that she recognised those people. Pavel noticed her focus. "Vat are you looking at?"  
"Do you see those people over there?" He nodded. "I'm sure I know them from somewhere."  
"Zey are quite far away."  
"Better eyesight, remember." She decided to ignore it, it was probably nothing.  
Then her brain kicked into gear.  
She realised where she knew those people from.

"Oh my God."  
"Vat?" Pavel saw her face. Her expression was locked into one of complete and utter horror, her eyes wide open with distress and fear. He moved to her side and tried to grab her attention. "Allie, vat is it? Vat's wrong?"  
She didn't speak for a while, it seemed to him that her entire body had shut down. She just kept staring at the three people across the grounds, who had nearly reached the building. Then she suddenly snapped back into herself.  
"It can't be them, it just can't be! They were never supposed to be here, this isn't happening, this isn't happening…" She trailed off, and before Pavel could say or do anything she had stood up and walked off at a very fast pace, leaving him behind, bewildered.


	2. An Explanation

_**Sorry, chapter updates will take a bit longer now that school has started again! Will try my best though. To anyone who thinks that Allie's full name is really weird, I agree, but my friend thought of it and it kind of stuck! Enjoy :)**_

* * *

Pavel ran after Allie and finally caught up to her in their assigned quarters – the Enterprise crew had been given temporary quarters on the Starfleet grounds as the ship was undergoing routine maintenance. He found her sitting on the bed with her arms wrapped around herself, perfectly still. He knelt down in front of her and put his hands on her arms. "Allie, vat's heppened? Vat did you see?"  
She tried to speak but no words came out. She finally managed to stammer, "It's my, my, I don't understand how they can be here."  
Pavel thought for a moment, then he understood what she was talking about. "О Боже, you don't mean? Allie, are your parents here?" She didn't say anything, she just nodded. He sat next to her and took her in his arms. She started to cry, her head against his chest. "It'll be okay, любимая, zey are probably not here for you, you said zat zey didn't know vhere you vere." Her breathing became short and choppy, she was showing clear signs of a panic attack. He took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes, she quite clearly needed someone to calm her down. "Allie, look at me." She did so. "Take some deep breaths." She followed his lead, both of them breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out until her breathes became slower and more normal. "Listen, your parents are not likely to look for you, I mean, zey haven't tried to find you for eight years, nozing is going to heppen."  
"Do you promise?"  
Pavel hesitated, he didn't want to promise her when he was sure if he would be right, he was only fairly certain that he was speaking the truth, but she looked so hopeful. "Yes, I promise." She smiled and fell back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling a tad guilty.

"Did you find out why they're here?" Allie asked Pavel when he walked back into their quarters.  
"да. Your father is being given some sort of honour for engineering discoweries, I couldn't find out anyzing more specific."  
"Who did you ask?"  
"Ze keptin."  
"It makes sense that he's be awarded something for engineering – it is what him company does after all. Work with new engineering systems I mean."  
"I hev some more bad news," Pavel told her, rather a pained expression on his face.  
"What? We don't have to go to the ceremony, do we?"  
"I'm afraid so, it's required attendance, ze same old 'crew of ze flagship' story." He put his arm around her shoulders. "It'll be fine zough. Ve'll go and zen leave as soon as we can, you still don't hev to speak to zem."  
"And Jim can't do anything to get us out of it?"  
"I don't zink so. I asked him and he said zat zere vasn't much chance."  
"Oh God. I can't do this, Pavel. I can't. I can't even see them. What am I going to do?  
"Ve'll only stay as long as ve hev to. You'll barely hev to see zem."  
She hesitated. She didn't want to do this, she couldn't bear to think of being forcibly stuck in the same room as her mother, father and sister. But she didn't have a choice. "Okay. I can do this. I think."

Four hours later they sat alongside their crewmates in the main hall. The presentation, which had included honours given to other people besides Allie's father, had concluded. Having been sat in the same room as her 'family' for almost two hours, Allie was anxious to leave. It didn't help that they had all been allocated seats in the third and fourth rows, directly behind the distinguished guests, or that they had all been required to attend the ceremony in full dress uniform, so they weren't exactly inconspicuous. At least Allie had finally managed to persuade higher Starfleet officials to allow female cadets and crewmembers to wear trousers and boots rather than the traditionally worn skirt and high heels, so she felt a little bit more comfortable. Physically, anyway. It also helped her that Pavel was sitting next to her, supporting her as he always did. His hand hadn't left hers since her father had appeared on the stage. She hadn't seen her mother or Katherine, her sister, yet, and she very much wanted to keep it that way. More importantly, she didn't they had seen her yet. As everybody filtered out of the hall Pavel led them both out of the stream of traffic. "I zink it vill be okay if ve go now," he said to her, "I don't zink it vill matter if we don't go to ze celebration."  
"Good," she replied, and they began to make their way to the doors. They had nearly reached them when a voice cut through the crowed.  
"Excuse me, miss?" Allie ignored it, they probably weren't talking to her, there were a hundred other women here who held much higher positions than she did. "Excuse me, I'm sorry to stop you leaving, but are you Alisabeth Swallow?"

She grimaced at the sound of her full name, but turned around regardless. A young ensign stood before her. "Yes, I am." She could see Pavel trying not to laugh beside her.  
"One of our guests has asked to speak to you."  
Allie blanched, and Pavel stopped laughing. "By any chance vould zis guest be Michael Svallow?" he asked the ensign.  
"Um, yes. I assume you're his daughter?"  
"Yes." She replied flatly.  
"Well, they're waiting over there." He pointed to three people who stood by a table near the centre of the room. Allie instantly recognised them.  
"Zank you, ensign," Pavel said. The ensign nodded and then left them alone. "Your real name is Alisabeth."  
Allie rolled her eyes. "Yes," she said bitterly.  
"Alisabeth? Not Elizabeth?"  
"Yes!" She said, annoyed. "Do you really think that that is important right now?"  
"No, sorry." He took a proper look at her face, and saw in contorted with fear and worry. "You don't hev to go, I promised you zat you wouldn't see zem."  
She smiled at him. "No, clearly I'm not going to escape them. If I don't talk to them now they'll surely find me later. Better to get it over and done with now. I'll have to face them sometime."  
"Are you sure?" She nodded. "Okay, but do zis for you, not for zem. And I'm right here with you."  
"Actually, I think it would be best if I did this alone." He looked puzzled. "I don't want them to use you as a, well, as a picking point, if you will. Besides, I need to do this alone," She was still smiling, although it was obviously forced now. "But don't be too far away."

"You wanted to speak to me." Allie said, forcing any emotion down inside her and speaking in a matter-of-fact way.  
"Alisabeth," her mother said, almost as if to confirm who she was speaking to.  
"Allie, actually."  
"That's not what we named you."  
"Yeah. I know." Her tone didn't change.  
"So it was you who Commander Spock told us about."  
"Spock? Spock told you that I was here?" Her surprise was echoed in her voice.  
"Yes," her mother answered. "He asked if you were related to us.  
Katherine cut in. "You never mentioned that we were your family then? Why not, at least some of the family is successful."  
Allie ignored the blatant insult. "No. Why would I? I don't think of you as my family." There was a silence. Her father didn't speak one word to her, he only looked at her, contempt evident in his eyes. "You really didn't know I was here then?" Nobody spoke. Allie looked back at her mother. "I only have one question. You never tried to get me back, not that I wanted you to, bear in mind. Why? I am technically your daughter, not that you ever bothered to mention my existence to anyone." The anger and sadness crept into her speech.  
Her mother needed no time to reply, "Because we didn't care. If you weren't going to the authorities if you stayed with my mother, what was the point in trying to re-claim you? You might have blabbed if we did. You may be my daughter by blood, but I never wanted you," she said, her voice packed with venom and fury. "You were a convenience to me at one time. I never felt anything for you. I know you feel nothing for us."  
Allie took a step back, and took a moment to decide what to say next. Eventually she said, "Well, at least we finally understand each other." With that, she turned on her heel and went to where Pavel was standing, a few metres off. She didn't know if he had heard the discussion. "Time to go," she said, and she walked to the door. The tears began to fall before they had left the room.


	3. An Understanding

"She really said zat?" Pavel to Allie when she had finished explaining what had gone down between her and her family.  
"Yes, she did," she replied. She had managed to stop herself from crying but she still felt like there was some sort of empty hole inside her stomach. She couldn't understand why what her mother had said had upset her so much; she had always known that her parents didn't care about her, so why had hearing it said plainly affected her so much?  
"I'm sorry, Allie, nobody deserves to hear zat from anyvone, especially zeir mother. Did your father say anyzing?" Pavel asked her, his voice and face filled with sympathy.  
"No. He never does though. I honestly can't remember the last time I heard him speak." They reached their quarters and went inside. "I don't really know what I should do next, Pavel. The only reason that they wanted to speak to me was to ensure that it was actually me that Spock told them about.  
"Hold on a moment, Mister Spock told zem zat you vere in Starfleet?"  
"Apparently. For which, I'm going to kill him."  
Pavel grinned. "So your superior strength vill come in handy zen!"  
Allie actually laughed. Being with Pavel always made everything better, even if he couldn't actually solve her problem he could always make her feel happier about it. "Yeah, I suppose so," she smiled. They sat on the bed and just looked at each other for a minute. Allie saw the sympathy and regret in Pavel's eyes, he was probably blaming himself for her facing her parents. He had a tendancy to do that. She pulled him closer to her and kissed him softly. His hands drifted up her back and onto her neck. He held her close and returned the kiss while her arms curled around his neck. They stayed that way for a while, locked together, before Pavel pulled her onto his lap, kissing her with a little more force, his hands now back on her waist. Allie pulled away from him, only slightly, all the tension she had been feeling was washed away from her, and she said, "I really do love you, Pav," in a voice barely louder than a whisper.  
He smiled as he looked into her eyes and said, "I know."  
Allie's eyes flicked upwards as she thought. "Didn't you steal that from an old film?"  
"I don't know, maybe," he replied and turned so that she was underneath him. He kissed her again, and she wound her hands up in his hair. That was when Pavel's communicator beeped.  
"Mr Chekov," it was Mr Spock's voice. "We require you on the Enterprise for a while, some of the navigation systems are in need of a refit and we need your input."  
Pavel reached over and pressed a button on the communicator. "Affirmative, sir. I vill be zere as soon as I can." The communicator went silent.  
"Well that killed the mood," said Allie with a small smile.  
"I'm sorry, but I have to go. Vill you be alright?" he said as he put his boots back on.  
"I'm sure I can cope without you for a few hours, have fun with Spock," Allie responded as Pavel walked to the door. "Remember to kill him for me."

Allie spent the next hours calmly sitting and reading in her quarters. All she had been able to find in actual book form was an old engineering manual. There were, of course, a library's worth of books available on any padd, but she preferred an actual book. In any case, the manual served to take her mind off of her parents. She was roused from the fascinating world of warp core systems by the sound of a door-chime. She stood up and laid the book on the bed, then walked over to the door. She didn't bother to check who it was, she assumed it would be Pavel back earlier than expected, or maybe Jim coming to check up on her, he had know about her family being there, after all. She really should have checked. The door opened to reveal her mother and father standing there. "Oh," was all she managed to say.  
"May we come in?" her father asked. Her father actually spoke! Allie was so taken aback that she stood aside for them. They entered her quarters, her mother's expression showed a clear aversion to where her daughter was living. They all stood in silence.  
"Where's Katherine?" Allie asked, simply trying to break the tension.  
"In our quarters," her mother replied, curtly. "She didn't want to see you."  
"The feeling is mutual," Allie said, under her breath. Her mother must have heard though, judging by the look she gave Allie. Silence ensued for a little while longer. Eventually, the elephant in the room had to be dealt with. "Why are you here?"  
"We came for your father – " her mother began.  
"No," interrupted Allie. "Why are you here, in my quarters. Why bother contacting me now? You left me alone for eight years. Frankly, I liked it that way."  
"I'll let your father explain," responded her mother as she sat in a chair on the other side of the room (but not before she had flicked it 'clean' with a handkerchief).  
There was yet another pause. "Well?" Allie said to her father, afraid of his reply.  
"I want you to come and work for me."  
"… I beg your pardon?" Allie's father was not the generous sort. He was very much an Alpha Male, he ran an incredibly successful company, was a household name. He had a beautician for a wife and a model for a daughter. Then he had Allie, the one whose entire existence he had hidden from the world because she didn't correspond with his idea of the perfect family, the beautiful family.  
"I want you to come and work for me. You have proven yourself to be a decent and capable engineer, and I feel that the company would benefit from you. You can finally be a worthy member of this family."

Allie couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her father had decided that she was now going to be allowed to be part of his perfect family. And it sounded like she wasn't going to be given a choice. So she would give herself the choice. "No."  
Her father's entire demeanour changed. His brow furrowed, his eyes darkened and his posture shifted as he leaned towards her. "What?" he said, his voice dangerously calm. "What did you say to me?"  
Allie held her ground, "I said, 'No'. I am not going to work for you. I have a career here, in Starfleet, a career I love, with prospects. I have friends now; I have people who do actually care about me. I don't want to be a part of your pathetic family." Her father's fist flew towards her, as it had so many times since she was a child. But now she was stronger and faster. And her father didn't know that. She caught his hand before it even reached the vicinity of his face. He stared at her, mouth wide open in shock. Allie sensed her mother was just as stunned. She squeezed her hand tighter around her father's wrist, finally able to fight back.  
His eyes began to widen and his face contorted with pain. "How, how can you do that?" he managed to stammer.  
"Because I am better," she hissed. "I am better at everything. I am better than you."  
"Allie, stop!" her mother cried. Allie suddenly realised what she had said, who she sounded like. She released her father's wrist and turned to her mother.  
"I didn't, I'm…" she trailed off as she registered the fear in her mother's expression. She didn't notice her father behind her. He brought his fist up and slammed it down, into her head. She fell to the floor, colliding with the end of the bed as she did so, cutting her head. Her father said nothing more to her, he simply turned and left.

Her mother however came and stood above her. Her expression was back to its usual sneer, the fear had clearly been a simple pretence. "You don't deserve to be a part of our family. You are worthless," she spat at her, before she too left the room. Allie sat up, alone again. Her communicator then beeped.  
"Allie, it's me. I won't be back tonight," it was Pavel. "Ze engineering crews need more help zan ve zought."  
"Okay," she replied, "See you tomorrow then."  
"Are you okay?"  
"… Yes, I'm fine."  
"Sleep well," he said, his voice filled with warmth. She could tell he was having the time of his life messing around with the navigation systems.  
"Have fun." She switched the communication off. She raised a hand to her forehead. When she looked back at it it was covered in blood from the cut on her head. As was the floor. She stood up gingerly, and took a towel from the bathroom. Holding it to her head she proceeded to clean up the small but still significant puddle of blood on the floor. Following that she got some bandages from the replicator and bound up her head. She climbed into bed, hoping she would have healed significantly by the morning. No-one was going to know about this. Not even Pavel.


	4. A Reassurance

Allie didn't see Pavel that morning. She assumed, correctly, that he had had to work all night, they were trying to finish the work on the _Enterprise_ as soon as they could. She got dressed and removed the bandage. The wound had healed a little thanks to her accelerated healing factor but it wasn't as healed as she'd hoped. It was still obvious. She tried her best to cover it up with her fringe. She had woken up late (she hoped she didn't have a concussion) and so she hadn't had time to do anything more to cover it. She looked in the mirror before she left. She could still see the cut through her light brown hair, but with a bit of luck nobody would notice, she should be able to keep her head down in some engineering system or another. She left the room and headed for the nearest transporter room. Once she had reached the _Enterprise_ she buried her attention in working on the transporter circuits, they currently had only one working transporter room. She worked there for a few hours, managing to push everything else that had been bothering her out of her mind. "How are you doing, lass?" Scotty's voice appeared behind her, startling her. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Thought you had sharper reactions now," he grinned.  
Allie turned slightly, enough to look at him, but not so far that he could see the left side of her head, where the cut was. "I do, but I was focused on this."  
"Fair enough. I need you to take this to Captain Kirk," he held out a padd, an engineering report written on it. "I'll take over here, I've been meaning to look at the transporter circuits anyway."  
"Yes, sir." Allie took the padd reluctantly. Scotty hadn't notice her forehead, but that didn't mean that Jim wouldn't.

She bumped into Jim on the way to the bridge. "Oh, hey, Al. How did you get on in the ceremony? Did you see your parents?" he asked.  
"Oh, yeah, but it was fine, nothing happened." 'Good, good,' she thought. 'A little bit of truth to hide the lie, it'll be fine.'  
"Really? Good," Jim replied, not really focused on her as a pretty ensign smiled at him when she walked passed. He beamed back at her, clearly making a note to introduce himself at the next opportunity.  
"Scotty gave me this to give to you, some sort of report on the refit." She handed him the padd and he looked back at her as he took it.  
"Allie, what's that?"  
'Oh no,' she thought. 'Bluff, bluff!'  
"Um, it's nothing."  
He smoothed back her fringe. "Oh my God, have you seen Doctor McCoy about this? What happened?" he exclaimed as he saw the wound on her head.  
"No, really, it's fine. I didn't want to bother him, he's probably busy. Besides, it's healing fine on its own."  
"What happened, Allie?" Jim pressed.  
She briefly considered telling him the truth, an idea that she very quickly dismissed. "I fell over, that's all." She didn't want to talk about it, she just wanted to forget about it.  
"You might just as well have said, 'I walked into a door'. Your father did this to you, didn't he?"

Allie turned away from him. "Please, Jim. It's nothing. Nothing happened."  
Kirk took her arm, turned her back to him. "Allie, you can't just ignore this."  
"I can try. Jim, please. Don't push this."  
"You need to go to sickbay."  
"No, I don't. It's healing. I'm fine."  
"The hell you are. You need to get checked out, even if I have to stun you and carry you there."  
Allie relented. "Fine." He didn't take her hand off of her arm, he still considered her a flight risk. She told him the full story of what happened as they walked. When they reached the medical bay Doctor McCoy was attending to a lieutenant with a burned hand. Refits always lead to injuries.  
"Be right with you, Jim," he called over his shoulder.  
Kirk beckoned for Allie to sit on one of the empty beds, which she did. He then proceeded to move to the nearest communication panel on the wall. "Mr Chekov," Allie looked at him, protesting. "We need you to come to sickbay immediately please."  
"Jim, don't tell him, please," Allie whispered, not loud enough for the intercom to pick up.  
"Y – yes, Keptin," came the response. Kirk switched off the intercom.  
Allie stood up and half-ran over to him, her expression panic-stricken. "Jim, please, he can't know about this, he'll freak out. Please, tell him not to come!"  
"Allie, he needs to know about this – "  
"I don't want him to know! He'll overreact and just… I don't know what he'll do. Please, don't tell him." Tears began to fall down her face.  
"Al, you can't keep this to yourself. Pavel is someone who needs to know because he can help you. I'm going to help you to. You can't deal with this alone."

Jim looked into Allie's eyes, and finally she conceded. She knew she couldn't do this by herself. Jim guided her back to the bed and she sat down again. Her head really hurt her, she was terrified that her parents were going to try and talk to her again, she was worried about how Pavel was going to react. Jim took one look at her face, sat next to her, and put his arms around her. She fell against his chest, and sobbed. She had never felt this awful, even after what Khan did to her she didn't feel this helpless. Jim's embrace tightened, helping her to block out everything else. He didn't say anything, he just held her as she wept. She needed help.  
"Why did they have to come back, Jim?" she gasped through the tears. "Why did they have to come back and find me and ruin everything? In eight years they never once tried to contact me. Why did they have to now?"  
"Because they wanted to scam off of your success, and if they couldn't, they wanted to crush it. But you know what?"  
"What?"  
"You haven't let them, have you? You said no, and you held your ground. You're going to be fine." He held her for a little while longer, until Doctor McCoy finally finished with his burn patient.  
"What happened to you?" he said when he saw the state of her.  
"It's a long story," said Jim. Allie sat up for Bones to examine the cut, but Jim held onto her hand, which helped her, supported her. McCoy looked at the cut and some scan readings, she had no concussion, and he sealed up the cut with a medical instrument. But not before Pavel had arrived.  
"О Боже!" Allie took one look at Pavel and began to cry again. He came straight over to her and sat where Jim had been (he had moved as soon as Pavel entered). Pavel didn't need any explanation for what had happened. "Your father hit you, didn't he? ублюдок!" Allie sniggered. "Zere, zat made you feel better!"  
"What did he say?" Bones said to Jim.  
"No idea, but I doubt it was complimentary."  
Bones finished up attending to Allie and said, "There we go. You can hardly see it. I need you to stay here for a little bit longer though, just to make sure you don't need anything else dealing with." Allie nodded.  
"And I hate to take him away from you, but I really need Pavel on the bridge," said Jim. He did sound regretful.  
"It's okay, if I'm only here, nothing's going to happen." Pavel looked reluctant, but he kissed her on the forehead, on top of the faint scar that remained.  
"Oh, sorry, did zat hurt you?"  
"Not at all."  
He smiled, and kissed her on the lips, before he and Jim left.

On leaving the medical bay, Chekov turned right, heading for the turbolift, but Captain Kirk caught his arm, and turned in the other direction. "Keptin? I zought ve vere going to ze bridge."  
"I know, but she'd never have let us go if I told here where we're actually going."  
"Vhere are ve going?"  
"I thought we'd pay Mr and Mrs Swallow a little visit." Chekov grinned. For once, Allie's parents wouldn't be allowed to win.


	5. A Confrontation

Kirk and Chekov marched along the corridor. It hadn't been difficult to find out which quarters they had been allocated. A little sweet talk and some rank-pulling at the administration desk and they were given the location with no problems involved. "Ready?" he asked Chekov when they reached the room.  
"Yes, sir," he replied. Kirk activated the door chime. The door slid open. Michael Swallow stood in the doorway before them. His eyes quickly swept the two officers in front of him.  
To Kirk he said, "I remember you. Captain Kirk, isn't it?" Kirk replied with nothing more than a curt nod. He then turned his attention to Chekov. "And you are?"  
Chekov opened his mouth to speak but Kirk beat him to it. "This is Lieutenant Pavel Chekov, my navigator." He didn't want Chekov to insult the man before they had a chance to really speak to him. "Sir, may be come inside for a moment? We need to speak to you and your wife."  
Swallow looked unsure, but replied, "Certainly, Captain." Chekov and Kirk entered the room. It was bigger than the average quarters, both because they were guests of Starfleet and because it was meant for three people. It closely resembled the set-up of a small apartment. Aside from themselves and Swallow, the room's only occupant was a women sat at a desk, one that she had turned into a make-shift dressing table. Kirk could only assume that she was Allie's mother.

"Who are you?" Mrs Swallow asked rudely.  
"My name is James Kirk, Mrs Swallow. I'm your daughter's Captain."  
"She's your problem now," she replied.  
"What do you need to talk to us about, Captain?" Swallow cut in, a sarcastic hiss entering his voice when he said Kirk's rank. Kirk ignored this.  
"Sir, madam. I, we need to talk to you about your daughter. About – "  
"Whatever she told you, it's a lie. She does that. Lies all the time." Mrs Swallow interrupted.  
"How vould you know?" cried Chekov. "You hawen't seen her in years!"  
"How do you know she's not lying about that?" retorted Mrs Swallow, her tone directly mocking Chekov's.  
"She vouldn't lie to me."  
"Chekov, that's enough," Jim said loudly, stopping an all-out war developing between them. "For now," he added, whispering so that only Chekov could here, causing the tiniest of smiles to flicker across the younger man's face.  
"Mr and Mrs Swallow, I want to discuss the cut on your daughter's forehead. The one that you," he gestured to Mr Swallow, "Caused." Mrs Swallow opened her mouth but her husband held up a hand, silencing her.  
He made no attempt to deny Kirk's accusation. "It's true, Captain Kirk. I am responsible for the wound on her head. But I assure you, she deserved it."  
That, clearly, did it for Chekov. "She deserved it?!" Jim didn't stop him this time. "Как ты смеешь говорить, что?! вы даже знаете ее? Никто не заслуживает того, чтобы, oсобенно не Алли. Она – "  
"Pavel, English," Jim reminded him.  
"Sorry, Keptin." He turned back to Allie's parents. "I said, 'How dare you? Do you ewen know her? Nobody deserves zat, especially not Allie – "  
Mr Swallow interjected, "Did she mention to you how she tried to crush my hand, how she insulted me and my wife?"  
Jim jumped straight in with an answer, he could see Chekov getting more and more furious beside him. He was pretty damn furious himself. "Actually, yes, she did. She told me how much it scared her that she was capable of that, how she genuinely felt sorry for what she did and what she said. Which is more than you are. So I actually agree with what she said, even if she regrets saying it. Allie is better than you. Than both of you."

Mrs Swallow stood up. "Who do you think you are, coming down here and tell us that our rotten kid is better than we are? How has she ever benefitted anybody's life? My husband has a very successful company, people come to me for help with their appearance and my only decent daughter has a thriving modelling career. Why would I want some stupid, smarmy brat who can only manage a stupid career in Starfleet?"  
"She has benefitted my life," answered Chekov, his voice maintaining a dangerous calm. "She has and alvays will benefit my life, because I love her, and nozing zat you can say vill ewer make me stop loving her. And I vill newer stop fighting for her."  
"Pathetic." Mr Swallow had rejoined the conversation. Kirk and Chekov both directed their attentions back to him. "This is one of the best that Starfleet has to offer? A mere child who is barely able to speak coherent English, blinded by his feelings for a equally pathetic girl? Can't you see the bigger picture here, boy? Alisabeth is and always has been nothing more than a liability for me. Well, now she's your liability, and all I have to say about that is, 'Good riddance to her.' To both of you."  
Kirk noticed both of Chekov's hands curling themselves into fists. Before he had any opportunity to use them Kirk said, "Now listen here, sir." There was no respect in his tone now, the word 'sir' was filled with a bitter sarcasm. "I don't know what you think gives you the right to control and lash out at your own daughter, the only decent member of this family that I have met so far, and get away with it. But I'm telling you now, neither of us will let you hurt her ever again. I also won't stand for you insulting any member of my crew, or my friends. So, I'll tell you what is going to happen now. I'm going to give you a choice. Option one: you, your wife, and your daughter pack up and leave here as soon as possible, and none of you ever try to contact Allie again. Then again, you may prefer option two. You refuse to leave and continue to harass Allie, and I go and the highest ranking Starfleet authority figure I can and I tell them everything. Not just how you physically and verbally abused her last night as well as all the time she was living with you, but also how you hid her existence from official records, which I'm sure even you have worked out, is illegal. Then the two of you will be arrested and I'm certain that the press will have a field day, attacking both your company and your daughter's (Katherine, is it?) modelling career."  
Both Mr and Mrs Swallow were stunned into complete silence. May ve assume zat you vill be choosing option one?" asked Chekov, a manipulative smile playing about his lips. Both of them nodded slowly. Kirk and Chekov headed for the door, but before they left Chekov turned back to them and repeated, "I vill newer, ewer, stop fighting for her."


	6. A Saviour

_**Much shorter chapter, sorry! But more to come soon :)**_

* * *

Allie and Pavel sat together in the medical bay. Doctor McCoy had given Allie a clean bill of health, and thanks to a mix of medical treatment and her enhanced genes, the scar on her forehead had completely faded. Pavel had just told Allie about what he and the Captain had done, and he had calmed her down after her initial reaction of, "You did WHAT?!" attracted attention from many of sickbay's patients. Now, though, they sat on one of the beds, waiting for the Doctor to come back and discharge Allie from sickbay. They chatted about this and that, nothing of any real importance. Pavel studied Allie's face, to anyone else she would have looked perfectly happy, but he could see a slight sadness still lurking in her expression.  
"Are you sure you are alright?"  
"Yeah, it's just…" she trailed off.  
"Just vat?" he prompted.  
"I just fell a little, weird, I suppose. Because, well, because I didn't deal with my parents myself. I guess I feel bad that you and Jim had to get rid of them for me."  
Pavel smiled sympathetically. "Ewerybody is allowed to let somebody else save zem once in a vhile. Ewen you, genetic enhancements or no genetic enhancements."  
Allie smiled, the traces of sorrow gone from her face. "So this is you, saving me?"  
He nodded and ruffled her hair. "And I'll alvays be here to protect you."  
"My knight in command gold amour!" she teased and elbowed him softly in the ribs, before she kissed him.  
"Oh God," came Bones' voice from behind them.  
"How long have you been there?" Asked Allie indignantly.  
"Long enough. Never thought you two were so cliché."  
"We're not normally, but he lead me into it." She gestured at Pavel.  
"Well, you can go, and I'm glad to be rid of you if you're going to be like this." She stuck her tongue out at him. He replied to this with a stern, parental style look that he couldn't hold for long before he laughed. "Go on, it's still sunny in San Francisco. Go enjoy it together."

They scarpered off and headed straight for a working transporter room. When they had been transported back to Earth Pavel took Allie's hand and tried to walk towards the grounds, but Allie held him back. "Vat is it?"  
"I was just thinking," she replied mysteriously, "That we have got the entire rest of the day to sit outside."  
"So?"  
"Well, we sort of got interrupted last night, and we've got all this time with nothing to do…" Pavel suddenly realised what she was getting at. He grinned and they half ran down the corridor and around the corner.

Which was where they ran into Irina Galliulin.


	7. A Reappearance

"Pavel?"  
Both Allie and Pavel stood with their mouths open, staring at Irina. Eventually Pavel managed to stammer, "Irina? Vat are you doing here? I zought you left Starfleet. Left Earth."  
"I did, but I have come back."  
"Vat? Vhy? Have you rejoined ze serwice?"  
"нет. I have come to see you," she answered simply.  
"Why? You left him to go off with a random bunch of, as I understand it, anarchists." Allie had finally remembered how to speak.  
Irina didn't bother to answer Allie's question, just looked at her smugly and said, "Vas I talking to you? No, I wasn't, so you can just run along and leave ze adults to zeir conversation." Allie went red, Irina was a mere three years older than her but she had always treated Allie like a child.  
"Okay then," she responded, and then looked at Pavel. "I think I need some air. I'll be back in a bit."  
"Oh no, Allie don't go. Please," he whispered, although Irina obviously heard.  
"Sorry," she said before she turned and walked back down the corridor.

Pavel watched Allie disappear around the corner, and then reluctantly turned back to Irina. She smiled sweetly, but Pavel could see through her act. "Vhy are you really here, Irina? You vouldn't come back for a wisit."  
Irina dropped her smile, the mischievous glint that entered her eye was all too familiar to Pavel. "I see I can't put anyzing past you anymore. Pavel," her voice grew softer and she drew closer to him. "Pavel, I zink I made a mistake leaving you."  
"Что?"  
"I said zat I made a mistake. I've missed you a lot, and I want us to get back togezer." Pavel laughed, and Irina frowned at him. "Vhy are you laughing?"  
"Because I know you, Irina. Ve vere togezer for almost two years, I know you. You hawen't missed me, you've been too busy tearing around ze galaxy with zose friends of yours. You forget, Starfleet gets reports of nearly everyzing zat heppens in Federation Space. Your name has come up more zan once."  
"I don't understand vat you are saying. Vat do you mean?"  
"Irina, I don't vant to be vith you again. I vasn't ewen zat upset vhen you left in ze first place. It saved me hawing to feel bad about breaking up vith you."  
Irina's expression suddenly changed when she realised that she wasn't in full control of the situation or conversation anymore. "You vere going to break up vith me?"  
"Yes, I vas. Because you are controlling, and manipulative, and downright mean."

Irina changed tactics, sweet-talking Pavel hadn't worked. "But," she drew even closer to him, backing him into the wall, "Don't you remember all ze fun ve had togezer, Pavel? Zere vere plenty of good times, and every relation has troubles. Do you really zink zat she is better for you zan I am?"  
Pavel was about to answer in the positive, when he realised that his back was against the wall, yet Irina continued to press closer to him. "Irina, vat are you -"  
She didn't let him finish the question before she answered it, but pushing her lips against his. His eyes widened in shock and he tried to push her away, but she wound her arms around him, binding him to her, so instead he simply froze, waiting for her to pull away.

Irina stayed close to Pavel, her lips covering his, unable to understand why he was refusing her, hadn't he loved her once? And surely, surely he couldn't actually be in love with that snivelling weed?

Something that neither Pavel or Irina had noticed was Allie coming around the corner just as Irina kissed Pavel. She stood at the opposite end of the corridor and watched them, before she turned and practically ran back down the hallway.

**_Four Years Ago_**

_ Cadet Allie Swallow had been at Starfleet Academy for six months now. It was a lot like what she had expected it to be, strict and disciplined (although a certain sense of fun and adventure always seemed to flicker around the cadets). Mostly, it was big. Everything was big. The buildings were tall, the grounds were wide, and every single class was full. And, naturally, everyone was taller than her. Being only fourteen all of the other cadets were older than her, which was a little intimidating. Allie spent most of her time by herself, she didn't really have any friends. Sure, there were people in her classes who she greeted most days, sometimes making polite small talk before the class started, but there was no-one whom she considered to be an actual friend. She certainly didn't think of her roommate as a friend. Starfleet had been slightly over-subscribed that year, and so Allie had been roomed with a third year cadet, and third years normally had their own rooms. So it was needless to say that Allie's roommate didn't like her very much. Her resentment was equally felt by Allie. She tried hard to ignore her, to concentrate on work or projects or reading, but Irina Galliulin was a difficult person to ignore._

_ One morning Allie woke up late. She hadn't gone to sleep until three o' clock in the morning, putting finishing touches on a report for her astrophysics professor. She shot out of bed when she saw the time, she must have slept through her alarm! Irina hadn't bothered to wake her up. Typical. She tugged on her uniform, grabbed the relevant pads and pieces of work she needed for the day (without bothering to stuff them into her bag as she usually did) and ran out of the door and down the dormitory hallway. At least, she ran until she collided with someone walking the opposite way. "Oh God, I'm sorry!" she cried as she scrambled to pick everything up. The person who she had crashed into bent down to help her collect her things.  
"Newer mind, it's okay, really," a pleasant-sounding voice with a Russian accent said as he handed her a padd. She looked up. He had golden brown curled hair and incredibly bright blue eyes. For a moment she completely forgot about her class and stammered a thank you as she took the padd. Then her brain kicked back into gear and she remembered where she needed to be.  
"Oh my God, my class, I'm so sorry to dash but I'm late for something, thank you for helping me," she said as she stood up.  
"It vas my pleasure," he replied and held out his hand. "My name is Pavel, Pavel Chekov."  
"Allie Swallow." She shook his hand and smiled at him. He then stood aside to let her past. "Bye!" she called as she began to run down the corridor again._

**_Fifteen months ago_**

_ Allie stood in the engineering section of the _Enterprise _waiting for the new Chief Engineer to arrive. She had just heard that Mr Scott had resigned his post, something to do with a protest over the new torpedoes, which was a shame, she really liked Mr Scott. She didn't know who Captain Kirk had assigned as his replacement. She checked on the readings from the warp core, she had been warned that the slightest problem with the torpedoes could upset the core. "Excuse me," came a voice from behind her, "But are you Lieutenant Svallow?"  
"Yes, sir," she said as she turned to see the cadet she had met in the dormitory hallway nearly three years ago. Pavel, wasn't it?  
"Ah, xорошо. I mean, good. Have you been looking at ze varp core readings?"  
"Yes, sir. Everything's fine, the readings are stabilised at the moment."  
"Great." He paused and looked at her properly. "Sorry, but have ve met before? I'm sure I recognise you."  
"Yes, I bulldozed into you a couple of years ago on my way to a class. In the Academy dormitories."  
"Ah yes, I remember now. Ellie, is it?"  
"Allie," she corrected with a smile.  
"Of course, sorry."  
"No problem."  
"I zought I vould see you again around zere, you seemed a little… lost?"  
"No, just late. I was re-housed on another floor a few days later, another room became available. Was your dorm on that floor?"  
"No, I vas just wisiting my girlfriend, Irina Galliulin. Do you know her?"  
Allie sought for something, inoffensive to say. "Yes, she was my roommate before I moved. She was, interesting."  
"You couldn't have been her roommate, she vas alvays talking about someone who vas 'pathetic and annoying'." Someone called his name from across the section. "Got to go, she vas probably talking about someone else."  
Allie waved as he left and muttered, "I doubt it."_


	8. An Eradication

Allie didn't know what to do, what to think. She could hardly believe what she had seen. Pavel couldn't have willingly kissed Irina, could he? They did have a history together, and she couldn't deny the fact that he had truly cared for her not long ago. She paced down the hallway that led to the grounds, although what she would do when she reached them she had no idea. She stepped through the door at the end of the corridor and walked straight into Doctor McCoy. "Oof! Where are you going in such a hurry?" She shrugged, she truly didn't know. "What's the matter with you?"  
"Nothing," she snapped back at him.  
"Something's clearly rattled you. What's happened?"  
She sighed. "I'm sorry I snapped. It's just, well, Pavel's ex-girlfriend has turned up, and it's right after my parents were here, and it's just not fair."  
"You sound like a child."  
"Oh thanks, that's sympathetic," she replied, her voice ripe with sarcasm.  
"Sorry. You're right, it isn't fair."  
Allie was a little taken aback. "Did you just say I was right? You've never said that before!"  
He nodded. "Enjoy it, it won't happen often." She laughed slightly. Then her entire expression sagged.

"What else has happened?" Bones asked, taking note of her face.  
"It feels like someone's out to get me, what with my parents and now Irina. And with Pavel kissing her and – "  
McCoy put his hands up to stop her. "Whoa, hang on a minute, Chekov kissed his ex?"  
"Yes, did I not mention that before?" she said miserably.  
"In front of you?" Bones continued.  
"I don't think either of them knew that I was there. I don't even know who kissed who, I really hope she kissed him and not the other way around," she said, a hint of despair now entering her voice.  
"It doesn't seem like something he'd do. What are you going to say to him?"  
"I don't know," she replied, "But it's going to be good."

The second that Irina pulled away from Pavel he pushed straight past her, barely acknowledging her at all. He walked directly to his and Allie's quarters without looking back at Irina. When he entered the room it was to find Allie standing in front of him, her arms folded. "Would you like a chance to explain or shall I just kill you now?" asked Allie, dryly.  
"Oh no. You saw?"  
"Yes, I did," she said, clearly trying to hide the anger she felt. "So, which is it to be?"  
"I'd quite like to explain, if zat's okay?"  
"Oh, please do. The floor is open, entertain me."  
He launched into it. "Allie, I svear on my life, on your life, I didn't kiss her. She kissed me and I tried to pull avay but I couldn't, so I just vaited for her to stop. Honestly, I didn't vant to kiss her, I vant her to leave."  
Allie's expression softened slightly. "Promise that's what happened?"  
"I promise."  
She unfolded her arms. "Okay then. I believe you."  
"Really, zank God!"  
"I trust you. On the other hand, if she'd told me the same thing I wouldn't have believed a word."  
Pavel moved over to her and took her hands in his. "Allie, I vant rid of her just as much as you do. If not more."  
"I honestly don't think that's possible."  
He laughed and said, "How are ve going to get rid of her zen?"  
Allie thought about it. "How easy would it be to get our hands on a hologram generator?"

Allie and Pavel stood together in a laboratory, next to a hologram generator. The official story was that they were performing an experiment to do with enhancing the quality of holograms. "I found ze file on ze computer. It has the right woice recording samples and physical descriptions for ze generator to make a conwincing image. Are you sure she vas coming down ze corridor?" Pavel asked.  
Allie nodded. "I shot back in here the second she came around the corner, I don't think she saw me. Here she comes, look through the window." They ducked down and activated the hologram.

Irina walked down the corridor, her mind focused on two separate things. The first thing she was thinking of was Pavel, and how to convince him to come back to her. The second this was Doctor Sevrin and her other friends, and how she had pretty much abandoned them to find Pavel. She had every intention of returning to them, with or without Pavel by her side. It was very much a coincidence, then, that she heard Doctor Sevrin's voice coming from somewhere behind her. "Irina."  
She turned around. "Doctor Sevrin?"  
"Irina, we need you. We understand why you left, but we need you to come back."  
"Vhy? Vhat has happened?"  
"We have had a development concerning Eden," replied Doctor Sevrin. Irina saw a sense of excitement twinkle in his eyes.  
Irina's face lit up. "You have found Eden?" she cried happily.  
"We are not sure, but it looks very promising. You must come back to Catulla immediately."  
"Of course, Doctor, I vill join you on your ship as soon as – "  
"I have one or two things to attend to here, navigation charts and such. Take a public transport. I will meet you and the others on Catulla."  
Irina smiled and said, "Alright. I vill go and arrange transport now. I vill see you on Catulla. Goodbye." She waved and Doctor Sevrin smiled at her. Then she turned and continued to walk down the hallway, heading for the nearest public port.

In the adjacent laboratory, Pavel and Allie had their hands clamped over their mouths to stop themselves from laughing out loud. "She's going to be furious vhen she finds out zat zey hawen't found Eden."  
Allie replied, "Who cares? She's not our problem anymore. I know they say that revenge solves nothing, but that felt pretty damn good!"


	9. A Party

It was New Year's Eve. Having had enough of the more restrained and formal events given by Starfleet the crew of the _Enterprise _were having their own, more traditional party on the ship. Mostly it consisted of food, drink (which was much more constricted at Starfleet's gathering), music and laughter. As usual, the senior officers were sticking to their usual routines; Captain Kirk flirted with every female crewmember in the immediate vicinity, Uhura tried to convince Spock to look as if he were enjoying himself, and Pavel and Scotty were having a heated discussion – that is to say, an argument – about the merits of Vodka versus Scotch. Stood aside from the debate were Allie, Bones and Sulu. Bones seemed less miserable than usual, most likely due to his rather impressive consumption of brandy. Allie and Sulu stood by him, laughing at his attempt to lecture them on the benefits of alcohol to medicine, slurring many of his words. He clearly hadn't had the experience of holding liquor that both Scotty and Pavel had had.

When the debate seemed to have come to a close Pavel came back over to Allie. "Who won?" she asked him.  
"Nobody von. Ve came to a stalemate."  
"So Scotty won then."  
"No." After a brief pause, he added, "Maybe."  
They broke of from the rest of the group and went and stood by the windows. Pavel slid his arm around Allie's waist. "It's been a hectic couple of days, hasn't it," said Allie, looking out of the window.  
"да, are you okay vith it all now?"  
"Yeah, I'm definately glad that Irina's gone."  
"I'm so sorry about her showing up like zat, it vas – "  
Her eyes fell back from the window to meet his. "Pavel, you have apologised enough times already. I keep telling you, you didn't invite her here and you had no idea that she had come back. It is not your fault, you don't need to apologise for anything."  
"I know, but it vasn't fair on you to have to deal vith her."  
"It wasn't fair on you either. I didn't deal with her by myself anyway, it was both of us."  
He smiled at her. "Me and you against ze vorld."  
"Against the universe." They looked out of the window again. "God knows what will happen next."


	10. An Epilogue

In an underground office belonging to a secret organisation of Starfleet, a lieutenant was working into the night. Sifting through various reports and personal and official logs from the _Enterprise's _Captain, First Officer and Chief Medical Officer, he was searching for something. Something top secret. He had strict orders to report to the Leader of Section 31, Agent Samuel Sloane. He also had even more strict orders not to tell anyone about this. Not that he would anyway, he was forbidden to tell even his wife and children that Section 31 even existed. He finished reading the report from Doctor McCoy concerning some sort of bed that would cryogenically freeze anybody at the push of a button. Not what he was looking for.

He noticed a previously unheard personal log from Captain James T. Kirk. It had extra security preventing both crewmembers and officers from hearing it. That was no problem for him though. A quick swipe of his hand and the security was all but wiped away. He listened to the log. When it had finished he stood and walked straight to Agent Sloane's office. He had found what he was looking for.

He entered Agent Sloane's office without activating the door chime, without even knocking. Without looking up from his desk Agent Sloane said, "It is customary to wait for permission before entering my office." He looked up to see who had been so bold, and seeing the lieutenant in front of him, he said, "Oh. Never mind." He paused. "Well?"  
"Sir, I think I've found what you were looking for."  
"Then hand it over." The lieutenant complied with the request. "It was in a personal log of Captain Kirk's, shielded from our earlier investigation."

Agent Sloane scanned the text before him – he always preferred things to be written out. "Let's go," he said when he'd finished. "We got her."


End file.
